In the third year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty, Shen Tuo, the head of the former sidu of the front hall, was imprisoned in Dali Temple for three years on death row for "collaborating with the enemy", waiting to be executed by Frost. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, bizarre secret room murders occurred one after another in Bianjing City: Taichang Shaoqing Wang Ji and Imperial College Doctor Liu Yuan died without injury. Strangely carved tortoise shells were left at the scene, and the nursery rhyme "Green seedlings are yellow, ghosts take longevity" is heard in the market. The emperor issued a secret edict to lift Shen Tuo's shackles, and granted him a gold medal for secret survey, giving him 40 days to thoroughly investigate the case.
Shen Tuo stepped out of prison, starting with three strange cases, and gradually uncovered an underground organization called "Butian". They used the tortoise shell as a symbol and the prophecy of divine punishment as a blade to kill the practical officials who implemented the new law, with the intention of inciting people's hearts and overthrowing the Xining Reform. Above the court, the old party took the opportunity to criticize the new party; below the court, the Liao Kingdom secretly assisted the traitors, and Jiangnan powerful forces transported wealth and money. A huge network of collusion between the government and the opposition, and between the north and the south, slowly unfolded. As a prisoner, Shen Tuo led the police and secret guards in life and death among the Bianhe Fireworks Square, Yuanwu Temple, Yuxian Temple, and Zhouqiao High Platform. Step by step, he peeled off the cocoon and approached the "Tianshu" hidden behind the curtain. But every step he takes, witnesses are silenced, clues are interrupted, and there is even a mole lurking in the investigation team...
The three crises of old and new party struggles, Liao's tiger eye, and Jiangnan's financial aid are coming together. Can Shen Tuo uproot Butian, preserve the last spark of reform, and avoid the Jingkang disaster that will shatter mountains and rivers in future generations? This book takes Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty as the stage, interweaves real historical facts and suspenseful reasoning, and places equal emphasis on the power game and the struggle of human nature, taking you into a thrilling spy war in the court.
